A few months following my marriage last June, I wrote the piece below on my thoughts, both pre- and post-nuptial, about same-sex marriage. As a frame, I quoted liberally from pieces I had previously written on the subject--pieces in which I (often contentiously) took the minority/… Read full post »

This blog post is about art and religion. And a brave woman photographer who is standing her ground.

Art is something different to just about everyone. Groups may agree on theoretical aspects of a work or genre, but the emotional response to a photograph, a play or a piece of music is… Read full post »

The year is a little less than a full day old and already I’ve seen at least three stories on the Winter Solstice 2012 Doomsday predictions—including one in which NASA (thankfully) debunks the whole idea. The NASA story does a wonderful job of explaining, in layman's terms, how these/… Read full post »

I know it’s become fashionable to knock the big box stores—but this week, Amazon proved why they’ve become such an easy target.

If you’ve spent the week knee-deep in tangled Christmas lights or up to your eyeballs in cookie dough (it is the season after all), you might not hav… Read full post »

*And when I say “winter,” I mostly mean “Christmas.”

If you’re lucky like me and live in a climate that sees four seasons, winter and snow and all of that are either here or closing in. American Turkey Day is over (in Canada, we have ours in the October, usually in… Read full post »

It’s a commonly held belief that immigrants, particularly those from Islamic nations, fare better in Canada than they do in the US. It’s our mosaic approach to immigration versus America’s melting pot attitude. We bend over backwards, sometimes to our own detriment, to ensure people… Read full post »

As a writer, I’m in the business of naming. But despite some skills and a better than average comfort with language, I’ve never been content with the limited terminology available to name those with whom we share an intimate or romantic relationship.

Even as a teenager, I felt there was s… Read full post »

It’s mid-October, so the Christmas commercials have started running. But something’s different this year.  I’ve noticed that both Sears and K-Mart are emphasizing the “new” old thing—layaway.

I believe I may be one of the last generations t… Read full post »

I want to point out that despite the fact that I get up most days before 5 a.m., I am not now nor have I ever been, a morning person. The pre-dawn rising is merely a response to a grueling rural transit schedule and the fact that I need a solid… Read full post »

I was innocently trying to kill some time while waiting for a bus. So I went window browsing, and without warning, spied THAT pair of boots. Jet black, the perfect heel for walking, no, more like strutting. Boots that would rise high up on my leg, past my knee. I was… Read full post »

This past Sunday night, both my twitter accounts (the one in my name and one I’d set up for a branded content blog I write occasionally) were hacked. After apologizing on Facebook and Linkedin, I changed my passwords so the accounts couldn’t continue to be used. Then, to avoid having to… Read full post »

I realize this heading could be taken as a lascivious invitation, with a retro twist. Sorry to disappoint. It’s about gardening. Or more to the specifically, non-gardening and being incredibly successful at it.

Long before my love and I decided to move to the country (the many consequences of w… Read full post »

I had to wait until Sunday had past to write this post. The 10th anniversary made everything too close, too raw.

I was sitting in my office on that sunny Tuesday when one of the partners came to my door with the news. We asked the hair salon next door… Read full post »

I promised myself I wouldn’t wade into the story surrounding Chaz Bono’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars. I feared if I did, the outcome could be a blog composed of nothing but long rambling strings of barely coherent profanity. But after hearing the umpteenth straight-off-/… Read full post »